England v Kenya Preview, 18 May 1999

Statistics

Why you should watch: This should be a rollicking win for England, but
there's always the chance of a shock defeat which would rock the foundations of
their World Cup campaign.

England against Kenya at Canterbury has the potential to be an fascinating
match as both teams line up for the first ever encounter in a World Cup
competition.

After a convincing eight wicket win over Sri Lanka at Lord's on Friday,
England will be looking to steamroller the minnows of Group A and
consolidate their solid start to the tournament. Perhaps the most
intriguing question though is whether they will continue to experiment with
makeshift opener Nasser Hussain, who can't really have been said to have
proved his case at Lord's, or revert to the tried and tested, but
out-of-form, Nick Knight. With both Alec Stewart and Graeme Hick already
amongst the runs against Sri Lanka, there was little opportunity for
England's middle-order to shine, so they will looking to spend some time in
the middle. Unless the pitch shows signs of being a raging turner, which is
fairly unlikely, England will probably field an unchanged seam attack to
take the battle to the Kenyans and the in-form Alan Mullally will be
looking to add to his impressive opening haul of four wickets. Yorkshire's
Darren Gough bowled well against the Sri Lankans but didn't perhaps quite
get the return he deserved and he will be looking to terrify the Kenyan
batsman and reinforce his reputation as England's premier strike bowler.

Despite an opening defeat against Zimbabwe at Taunton, Kenya will draw
inspiration from memories of their finest hour during the last World Cup
when they pulled off an astonishing 73 run win against the West Indies in
Pune. Talented stroke-maker Ravindu Shah scored a decent 37 on Saturday
while middle-order Batsman Alpesh Vaher notched Kenya's first half-century
of the tournament and looked in good form, but the rest of the top order
will really need to contribute if they are to threaten England. In the
bowling department, young tyro Thomas Odoyo who was the youngest player to
play in the 1996 tournament is one of Kenya's brightest prospects and has
already made his mark, while vice-captain and all-rounder Maurice Odombe's
off-breaks earned him two wickets against Zimbabwe and this pair appear to
be Kenya's form bowlers at the moment.